Chapter 14. Ignition
Tarais turned to go.
Rhys’ power surged. Startled, she whirled.
He pushed himself off the wall. It took him immense effort to do so, blood washing down his chest and back, but he did. He looked up at her and laughed. “Is it inevitable?”
Black smoke billowed from his back and head. A pillar of black poured into the sky. Yet, at the same time, his mana grew stronger and clearer than Tarais had ever felt from a Rank 1 before. It was as if he was refining it inside of him, reforging it within his core the way one forged iron into steel.
“What… how?” Tarais asked, shocked.
He laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Within Rhys, the impurities burned. As they burned, they released extremely small amounts of an incredibly pure, powerful mana. About one one-hundredth of the impurities refined to that pure mana, while the rest burned off in the pillar of smoke. The second the pure mana touched his ordinary mana, it mixed together. Although Tarais couldn’t know it, she was very close to the truth. Just like mixing iron and carbon made steel—in other words, by adding an impurity into the iron, one forged it stronger—just like that, the impurity-mana and his ordinary mana mixed together. The result was less powerful than that extremely pure mana, but all of his mana could become that ‘alloy,’ and that ‘alloy’ was far stronger than his Tier 1 mana was on its own.
The super pure mana was stronger than his ordinary mana and the alloy, but he couldn’t generate enough of it for it to matter on its own. Even if he collected all of it, the super-pure mana would fit on the nail on his pinky finger. On top of that, he couldn’t keep the super-pure mana separate from his ordinary mana. From the beginning, the impurities were in his core and his mana passages. The super-pure mana was surrounded by ordinary mana from the moment it was born. He could sense the super-pure mana for that split second when it was created, but by the time he’d gathered himself to do anything about it, it had already merged with his mana.
He wasn’t complaining, though. That tiny, pinky-nail amount of super-pure mana made all his mana vastly more powerful. Most mages could only dream of such an improvement.
He pulled out his potion and took a good sip—a full mouthful, this time. Less is More took control, supercharged by his newly-reforged mana and ignited impurities. The wound closed slowly. He took a deep breath, and felt his lung pop back into shape.
The impurities burning also gave him a boost of power. Unlike the alloy of the super-pure mana and his ordinary mana, though, he could tell it was temporary. Once the impurities burned down, it would be gone.
So he turned his broken sword toward Tarais. His Trash Intent burst into form, and the blade’s full length sprung into shape. He dashed toward her, swinging his blade.